With an increasing percentage of the population comprising elderly or infirm persons living alone, the demand for a means to monitor the well-being of these individuals has increased. Although periodic visits by other individuals, such as visiting nurses or family members, provide a measure of security, and while the telephone provides a means for summoning help in an emergency, many situations immediately come to mind whereby an incapacitating emergency, such as a fall, occurs between such visits and when an individual is located some distance away from their phone.
As a result of this problem, a number of service businesses have formed which provide a monitoring service for people living alone. Typically, a person, called a subscriber, wishing to be monitored, is supplied with a home communicator. The home communicator links the person's home either by telephone or radio with a central monitoring station. Also typically, the subscriber is provided with a small personal communicator which is worn by the subscriber and which is in radio communication with the home communicator. In the event of an emergency the subscriber need only press a button on the personal communicator to cause the home communicator to notify the central monitoring station that the subscriber requests help.
When the central monitoring station receives the help call from the home communicator, the central monitoring station then proceeds to call one or more individuals, called responders, who proceed to the subscriber's home to provide assistance.
To install a home communicator in a subscriber's home, it is first necessary to set the communicator so that it will dial or place calls according to the requirements of the local telephone network interface. The network interface is generally preconfigured according to the type of service a telephone subscriber has selected and paid for. The local telephone network interface will accept, depending upon its preconfiguration, only pulses or only tones generated by the telephonic unit during dialing.
Telephonic devices, in order to be used both with network interfaces which accept tone dialing and those which accept pulse dialing, typically include a user setable switch which selects whether the telephonic unit will dial numbers by generating tones or pulses. A telephonic device which is set improperly, i.e., either generating pulses when the network interface accepts only tones or vice versa, will be unable to place calls over the telephone network. The consequences of an improper dialer setting may be severe in the case of a home communicator which is to be used to request help in an emergency.
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for permitting a telephonic device to select pulse or tone generation itself, as appropriate, and thereby avoid the problems which may arise from an improper selection.